Food for thought: The benefits of Majority Language breaks on minority language routine

For organisational purposes, my eldest daughter spent the first week of summer holidays at my mother’s, who exclusively speaks the Majority Language (ML). Though I am naturally delighted to see my mother and daughter bonding together, I confess that deep inside me a little voice was expressing apprehension as to the impact on her minority languages (ml). We have struggled so much with my eldest and are still playing catch up (see Our Story), plus she still prefers the ML to her 2 ml.
During that week, my eldest had no exposure to English or Spanish, but for our daily 10 minutes call. When she returned, however, I was delighted to observe these 5 days had no impact whatsoever. In fact, it was quite the opposite…

Like any children returning home after a few days away, my daughter was delighted to find her room again, but also to renew with her ml home routines. I overheard her reading her captive reading stories and captive reading messages, she left a reply to my welcome back message on our captive reading whiteboard, she raptured at the new design of her Weekly Mystery Word and enjoyed having me reading her ml books again, neglecting her usual cartoons. Her previously waning interest for some of these was suddenly renewed.

Hence, if you are currently dreading the effects of the ML exposure on your child’s ml over the summer, bear in mind that breaks from the ml routine can in fact be very beneficial to the ml!
And to keep the ml strong this summer, you can introduce different ml routines adapted to your place and schedule. By the time your family hits home again by the end of the summer break, their interest might have waned from the ml summer routines and they might be ready to renew with their usual ml home routine. 😉
If you are unable to travel to the ml country this summer, you can get some extra ideas from this post: “Summer holidays: 12 ideas to keep the ml up when staying in the ML country”